Topic awaiting preservation: Interpreting obscenity..? Crime and punishment..?

Another shocking article from Rotten... *site contains explicit material*

Never heard of this finger "shocker" thing before. Seems pretty harmless to me if a bit vulgar but I never would have guessed what it meant without the explanation.

Kids do silly things, some adults freak... par for the course I suppose. I feel sort of bad for the principal really. He was only trying to do the right thing and he was probably correct in trying to punish the kids. Maybe he went too far... hard to say with only a rotten.com soundbite for info. Still, it all seems a bit silly to me. If it were my kid who made such a guesture, I really doubt I'd be all that bothered.

Amerasu |

Better than the kids flashing the camera...
I'm sure that that's happened before...


The other other other other other white meat.

Yup, it seems that the only real loser in the end was the principal.

I can't say I've seen the gesture used much, but I have heard crude references before to the practice of "holding her like a bowling-ball" - though this makes use of a different combination of digits...

On the whole though, I can see why there would be uproar over it - it may seem fairly harmless, but something like that can destroy the reputation of an educational institution.

(Edited by White Hawk on 07-07-2004 13:40)

Students on photos making gestures which *could* in some context be seen as obscene, *destroying* the reputation of a school? PLEASE!
I heard bad things about the US school system before, but if the reputation of educational institutions depends on how well-behaved the students look on yearbook photos...

And it´s not like the poor principal *had* to resign - nobody would have remembered this silly episode two years from now.


There is not any memory with less satisfaction than the memory of some temptation we resisted.
- James Branch Cabell (1879 - 1958)

Okay - maybe not *destroy*. 'Damage' would be better choice.

And it wasn't just a few odd students - it was many students in many photos.

So you don't think it would have looked bad for the school to have these moronic hand-gestures (somewhat akin to 'gangsta' gestures) all over their annual photographs?

I admit that the affair seems a silly one to quit over, but I still don't think that the (commuted) punishment was actually too severe at all.

With recent events on this forum involving the reversal of a decision to ban a member for obscenity toward another member (which required translation before the offense was realised), I couldn't help thinking that this story link might be interesting to some.

It is, at least, rather amusing...

I have a hard time seeing this "gesture" as anything but.......stupid.

What would be the purpose of intentionally flashing this gesture in a photo? To say to people "dude, I like to try sticking my finger in people's asses"??

I mean.....if this is what the kids are doing these days that's so obsecene, they do indeed have a lot to learn

lol - true

Stupid or obscene, the pictures would still have been ruined - not something that would look good to a prospective students' parents. Politically, the establishment would have to be seen to frown upon such things.

Honestly, I can't see why they would have allowed the photographs to be taken with such stupid gestures in the first place - even without interpreting it as something crude.

quote:

---

I admit that the affair seems a silly one to quit over, but I still don't think that the (commuted) punishment was actually too severe at all.

---

Last time I heard of someone requiring community service was because of a criminal offense. Making hand gestures like this is not criminal, and therefore shouldn't get a punishment similar to that of a criminal offense.

I consider this to be the same as the ROCK AND ROOOOOOOLL hand symbol being supposed to be the devil. No one cares (except that suiciding kid's lawyer who was looking for every little thing against Ozzy Osbourne he could find, and hard-core super-christian people) about that one.


A foolproof method for sculpting an elephant: first, get a huge block of marble, then you chip away everything that doesn't look like an elephant.

They didn't end-up having to do the community service, therefore the punishment was not so cruel...

its all in how it was interpreted technically holding your pointer finger can be given a bad meaning along with the peace sign. I think the principle was over-reacting a little. if thats the worst they did then he should be glad. besides was the photographer BLIND!?!?!?! that he didn't see that many students. I know you can hide things but still! Beside some would most likely be in the front row.

If one match can start a forest fire then why does it take the whole box to start a BBQ Grill?

I agree with DL. That was stupid. If kids really wanted to do something to get community service over and make the principal resign, they should have went out in a blaze of glory! Not use a sign that is hard to realize what it means. I mean, the principal didn't say anything for a few years, and all of a sudden it is bad. It is stupid to think that he would let that get up his skin.

Do not rebuke a moker or he will hate you, rebuke a wise man and he will love you.

I think it was all just political meanderings after the fact. I agree about the photographer - where the hell was he looking while he took the pictures??